Some young children accurately diagnosed as autistic lose their symptoms and their diagnosis as they get older, say US researchers.

The findings of the National Institutes of Health study of 112 children appears to challenge the widely held belief that autism is a lifelong condition.

While not conclusive, the study, in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggests some children might possibly outgrow autism.

But experts urge caution.

Much more work is needed to find out what might explain the findings.

Dr Deborah Fein and her team at the University of Connecticut studied 34 children who had been diagnosed with autism in early childhood but went on to function as well as 34 other children in their classes at school.

On tests - cognitive and observational, as well as reports from the children's parents and school - they were indistinguishable from their classroom peers. They now showed no sign of problems with language, face recognition, communication or social interaction.

not always but sometimes, i think it depends on how severe. The more severe the less the chance I am guessing. I have a friend that has a "partially" autistic child and I have known him well for the last 12 years, As time goes on it has diminished more and more, to the point now you wouldn't even know it if you didn't know him from when he was little. Now one would only think hes very eccentric and not autistic.

I'm an 18-year-old autistic child (well, adult now, I suppose lol), and my case of autism is now very, very mild (almost undetectable), but I've always attributed that to the hard work my special education teachers, my parents, and myself did to teach myself the social skills needed and what-not. As well, my sensitivity to loud noises isn't as... sensitive (if that makes sense?) as it was in the past, (meaning, I can handle louder noises better now) but I thought that was just me getting used to it. Lol.

Well, who knows if this study is right then? ... But honestly, whenever I hear anyone say something like this, I always have at least the slightest bit of skepticism, knowing how many things people say about like "where autism comes from" and "what it could lead to" and stuff. (For example, I've never had a flu shot, and I live in a smaller city, so pollution isn't really a problem.)

i am autistic ... i am in my 20s .... I am still autistic ... I still find public transport difficult... I dont understand certain social interactions... and so so much more... I have not and will never "grow" out of it but I have changed alot .... its the environment you are in ... my friends have helped me through things, I have learnt what is not and what is acceptable in public ... just because I can blend into a crowd does not mean I belong in it....

I am not raging I am simply saying before all the haters show up saying about how autism is BS ... I am proud of being noticeably different .... with my strange odd ways ... of sitting in carboard boxes and watching cartoons comes the intelligence and logic gifted to me by autism autistic and proud :3

I don't think any child grows out of autism, my son acts EXACTLY like I used to as a child, and he is diagnosed as autistic, as you grow you learn to manage it better, but it's still there, in both of us, we have both done things and asked ourselves while were doing something 'why did I just do that'?